


Popsicle

by JupiterMelichios



Series: Tumblr Fics [26]
Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Buffy The Vampire Slayer Fusion, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Challenge Response, Ficlet, Fluff and Humor, Friendship, Gen, Human/Vampire Relationship, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-02
Updated: 2020-06-02
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:21:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24498610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JupiterMelichios/pseuds/JupiterMelichios
Summary: Jason must have felt Tim’s eyes on him, because he flexed his arms and winked, and Tim did his best to pretend not to be a total stereotype. (Steph had no such qualms, and wolf whistled, because in her words ‘if you want the Slayer to hang around with a vampire, soul or no soul, I’d better be getting some perks out of it, and that face definitely counts as perks’).
Relationships: Stephanie Brown & Jason Todd, Stephanie Brown & Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown & Tim Drake & Jason Todd, Tim Drake/Jason Todd
Series: Tumblr Fics [26]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/136539
Comments: 17
Kudos: 187
Collections: JayTimWeek





	Popsicle

**Author's Note:**

> For JayTim Week day one - the prompt was actually college AU, but I misremembered it as Highschool AU, and then I rewatched a couple of episodes of Buffy and wrote this, only to realise it was now two steps removed from the original prompt.

Tim leant back against Jason’s chest, and sucked his popsicle.

He was sitting on a gravestone, which was uncomfortable, and the popsicle was in that awkward middle ground between so cheap it just tasted deliciously artificial, and the fancy kind made with real fruit, and was mostly just disappointing and cold. But he had an entirely frivolous appreciation of the right aesthetic, and this, pose, popsicle, and Jason’s chest firm against his back, was definitely the right aesthetic for watching his best friend fight vampires.

“You could help you know,” Steph said testily, as she staked one of the vamps and ducked under a clumsy roundhouse from another.

Tim raised an eyebrow and sucked his popsicle, and sure enough Jason said, “No we couldn’t”, right on queue.

“So why are you here, then!” She wasn’t actually angry with them, but it would have been hard to tell for anyone who didn’t know her. She had a soft side, and even a sweet side, but most of the time Steph gave off the impression of someone ready, willing, and indeed able, to fight the whole world single handedly. To Tim, who spent his life second guessing everyone and looking for hidden motives, it made her surprisingly relaxing company.

That was also one of the reasons he and Jason had lasted a year and counting. Despite his brains and his age, he was a remarkably simple person. He wanted to date Tim, and he wanted to eat him, and while those might have been conflicting wishes they were at least simple and easy to understand.

“I’m here for moral support,” Tim said. “And because watching you kill vampires is surprisingly cathartic.”

“What’s Jason’s excuse then?”

“Tim’s warm,” Jason said. “And you look like you’ve got it handled.”

“Of course I’ve got it handled!” Steph said, spinning into a kick that sent the last vampire flying back into a conveniently heart-height tree branch. “That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t appreciate some help! I mean, what’s the point in Tim _having_ a pet vampire if you’re not going to help?”

“I give really good shoulder rubs,” Jason suggested, as unbothered by being referred to as Tim’s pet as he always was.

“That’s true,” Steph relented. “Doesn’t help me much now though.”

Jason patted Tim’s shoulder and said “don’t fall” in a low voice before he stepped back. Tim kept his balance - and therefore his dignity - because he’d decided within weeks of meeting Steph that just because he was the research guy didn’t mean he couldn’t learn to fight, but it was a near thing. Graves really weren’t designed for sitting on. “I’ll take the next ones.”

“Deal.” Steph tossed him her stake, and Jason caught it easily. “Tag, you’re it.” She came to sit beside Tim, and he scooched across to make room for her. “God I hate the week after Independence Day.”

They’d been doing this for three years now, and every year without fail any public holiday that involved drunkenness, from Fourth of July to St Patrick’s Day to New Years, saw a rash of new baby vamps causing havoc as the older and more experienced monsters preyed on people too smashed to notice their date wasn’t quite human.

Why so many of those victims ended up vamps instead of corpses was another question. Bruce refused to let Tim see the books he had on vampire and demon reproduction until he was 18, and Tim didn’t know whether that was because he knew about the kinky stuff Tim and Jay got up to, or just because they’d got a higher than usual number of lewd woodcuts, but he was looking forward to finding out.

He’d tried to ask Jason about it, about why vampires would ever turn other vampires when that just meant more competition for turf and victims, but Jason had just shrugged and said that he’d never had much of a paternal instinct, so he wouldn’t know.

It was the eighth of July, so they didn’t have to wait long for more vamps to show up, just one this time but built like a professional linebacker.

Steph held out her hand for the popsicle as the fight started, and Tim passed it over. She took a long lick, and then pulled a face. “You couldn’t have got one of the cheap gas station ones?”

Tim shrugged. “We only pass one convenience store on the way to the cemetery, and this was what they had for a dollar.”

“Well then you could have shelled out more than a dollar. At least those real lemon ones are refreshing instead of just cold.”

“We only had a dollar.”

“You’re rich, and he’s an immortal vampire. How did you only have a dollar between you?!”

“Lack of planning.”

“You are incapable of not planning everything. You play chess against _computers_ and win.”

“Not my planning. Jason wanted to get it for me.”

“Well tell him not to be such a cheapskate next time, this is gross.”

“Yeah, it kind of is,” Tim agreed, holding out his hand for it. She passed it back, and Tim bit the top off and crunched it. At least it wasn’t too soft to make a satisfying crunch.

A few graves over, Jason had got the linebacker down, and was doing the grisly work of shoving the stake through the layers of muscle. Movies always made it look easy, and most of the time it was, at least for Steph and Jason with their enhanced strength, but for Tim, or on vamps with a lot of muscle, it was hard bloody work.

Finally Jason’s hammering on the base of the stake shoved it through the chest wall, and the vamp crumbled to dust under Jason. He stood, dusting off his hands, and then peeled off his jacket. Vampires didn’t sweat exactly, but he’d got that slight shine to his skin that was as close as they got.

He must have felt Tim’s eyes on him, because he flexed his arms and winked, and Tim did his best to pretend not to be a total stereotype. (Steph had no such qualms, and wolf whistled, because in her words ‘if you want the Slayer to hang around with a vampire, soul or no soul, I’d better be getting some perks out of it, and that face definitely counts as perks’).

“Think that’s the last of them?” Tim asked, to cover up the fact that he was staring. God his boyfriend was hot.

“Doubt it,” Jason said, sauntering over to give Tim a quick fond kiss that meant he’d definitely noticed Tim ogling his muscles. “This close to a holiday…” He caught Steph’s expression. “I can finish up here, if you like?”

“No, it’s cool. I mean, I’m the Slayer. It’s kind of my duty and all.”

“Yeah, but one of the advantages of being dead is no school, and no… I’m guessing history test?”

“Chemistry,” Steph said with a sigh. “And it doesn’t even matter because I’m going to fail anyway. Might as well use my time productively.”

“You’re not going to fail,” Tim said, because he was her best friend and that meant being supportive, even if she was definitely going to fail.

“No you’re not, because Tim’s going home with you for a study session, and I’m going to finish up here,” Jason said, firmly. “I can’t help with the exam, but I can at least give you a bit of time.”

Steph stared at Jason like he was the best thing she’d ever seen. “God I wish you were my boyfriend.”

“No you don’t.”

“No, I don’t, because I know way too much about your whole deal, but you’re still pretty freaking awesome. You sure you don’t mind?”

“What else am I going to do with my evening?”

Tim raised an eyebrow, because aesthetic, and Jason grinned at him. “You don’t count. You know there was no chance you were going to let me drag you away and have my wicked way with you, not four days after Fourth of July and the night before an important test.”

Tim crunched down the last of the inferior popsicle, then slide off the gravestone and stood on tiptoe to give Jason a cold artificial-cherry tasting kiss. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“You know it. And I’ll even buy you a popsicle that doesn’t taste completely gross.”

Steph blew him a kiss. “See you tomorrow, big guy. Come on Tim, you’ve got-” she checks her watch “-three hours to teach me the periodic table before we have to crash.”

**Author's Note:**

> I would love to know your thoughts on who would be who in this world.
> 
> Obviously if Bruce is Giles then the Joker is Ethan (because he really can't be anyone's villain except Bruce's, he'd pine), and Cass is either Faith or Kendra or a fusion of the two. I kind of feel like Harper is the Oz? Mostly because her role in Tynion's Detective run was to come into the story, give some sage life advice, and then mosey out again.


End file.
